The Relationship Between Parental Communication Deviance and Relapse in Schizophrenic Patients in the 1-Year Period After Hospital Discharge

Abstract

The present pilot study examined the ability of parental communication deviance (CD) to predict relapse in schizophrenic patients in the 1-year period after hospital discharge. Measures of CD were obtained from verbatim transcripts of family problem-solving discussions for 20 schizophrenic patients and their parents at an initial assessment and before the patients' hospital discharge. Relapse was assessed using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale at 3-month intervals after discharge. Findings indicated that parental CD measured at an assessment immediately before the patient's release from the hospital was moderately correlated (r = .49, p < .05) with relapse in the 1-year follow-up period. Results are discussed with respect to the possible role of parental CD as an environmental stressor in the period after discharge. Potential contributors to parental CD, including genetically transmitted cognitive deficits and stress resulting from resuming the care-giver role, are also discussed.

Mapping early environment using communication deviance: A longitudinal study of maternal sensitivity toward 6-month-old children

“…CD scores were calculated as the number of instances of CD divided by the number of words spoken to account for verbosity (as recommended by previous researchers; Hirsch & Leff, 1971; Miklowitz & Stackman, 1992). This coding protocol has been shown to have good reliability and construct validity (Velligan et al, 1990), and has been previously used with clinical (Velligan, Funderburg, Giesecke, & Alexander, 1995; Velligan et al, 1996) and high-risk populations (Velligan et al, 1988). The system has also been previously applied to 5-min speech samples (Kymalainen, 2005; Kymalainen, Weisman, Rosales, & Armesto, 2006), and to natural speech samples (Docherty, 1993).…”

"Schizotaxia": Clinical Implications and New Directions for Research

“…Difficulties with language have also been documented in studies of communication deviance, which have found unclear, amorphous, disruptive, or fragmented communication among the parents of schizophrenia patients (Wynne and Singer 1963 b ; Singer and Wynne 1965; Doane et al 1981; Rund 1986; Velligan et al 1990; Docherty 1993; Docherty 1994; Miklowitz 1994; Rund 1994; Velligan et al 1995; Docherty et al 1996; Velligan et al 1996). Given these communication problems, it is not surprising that relatives of schizophrenia patients also show signs of thought disorder (Lidz et al 1962; Wynne and Singer 1963 a ; Wynne and Singer 1963 b ; Rosman et al 1964; Singer and Wynne 1965; Schopler and Loftin 1969; Arboleda and Holzman 1985; Saccuzzo et al 1988; McConaghy 1989; Shenton et al 1989; Romney 1990).…”

Mapping early environment using communication deviance: A longitudinal study of maternal sensitivity towards 6-month-old children

“…This coding protocol has been shown to have good reliability and construct validity (Velligan, Goldstein, Nuechterlein, Miklowitz, & Ranlett, 1990) and has been previously used with clinical (Velligan et al, 1996;Velligan, Funderburg, Giesecke, & Alexander, 1995) and highrisk populations (Velligan et al, 1988). The system has also been previously applied to natural speech samples (Docherty, 1993) and to FMSS (Kymalainen, 2005;Kymalainen, Weisman, Rosales, & Armesto, 2006).…”